The Combat of the Thirty (Deeds of Arms, 2)

Author: MuhlbergerBrand: Freelance Academy PressNumber Of Pages: 83Details: On March 27, 1351, sixty armed men gathered in a field in Brittany, halfway between the two enemy castles of Josselin and Ploermel. Representing the garrisons of those two strongholds, these two groups of thirty men at arms they had appeared in this field with no strategic or tactical goal, other than to make good on their captains promise: "We will go to an open field and there we will fight as long as we can endure it." The battle was fought until all on one side were dead or captured, and no one ran away. This showdown in the fields of Brittany attracted attention in its own time and the story has been retold in many eras since, standing as the subject of romantic inspiration and call to bold action for over six hundred years. But was the Combat of the Thirty an admirable deed? Even in the fourteenth century, opinions were divided: some thought that it was a fight for no sensible reason, "the product of pres